I SIT at a trellis table, tucking into plates of Padrón peppers, chipirones, and patatas bravas as my children dig in the golden dirt with a stick and the sun's rays, refracted through the branches of tall pine trees, create patterns that dance on the faces of passing walkers. The Spanish food, the rural setting, and the blazing sunshine create the illusion of being somewhere considerably more Mediterranean than the Off The Rails café, a wooden shack about halfway along Jersey's Railway Walk, a four-mile, off-road path that follows the route of an old railway line.
The first train ran from St Helier to Corbière on August 5, 1885, and riding the railway became one of the highlights of a sojourn to the island for the tourists that flocked here from the late-Victorian era- I have a photograph of my paternal grandparents laughing in a carriage as they journeyed along the coast during one of their many holidays. My grandmother's cloche hat dates the picture to the 1930s, probably just before the railway closed in 1936.
During the Second World War, the German occupying forces briefly resurrected the railway and extended it east to Grouville and north to Ronez quarry, so that they could easily transport the sand and stone they needed to build their fortifications. Some of these German remains are still visible, including an embankment at what was Pont Marquet Station, about half a mile from Don Bridge.
This story is from the July 20, 2022 edition of Country Life UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the July 20, 2022 edition of Country Life UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Put some graphite in your pencil
Once used for daubing sheep, graphite went on to become as valuable as gold and wrote Keswick's place in history. Harry Pearson inhales that freshly sharpened-pencil smell
Dulce et decorum est
Michael Sandle is the Wilfred Owen of art, with his deeply felt sense of the futility of violence. John McEwen traces the career of this extraordinary artist ahead of his 88th birthday
Heaven is a place on earth
For the women of the Bloomsbury group, their country gardens were places of refuge, reflection and inspiration, as well as a means of keeping loved ones close by, discovers Deborah Nicholls-Lee
It's the plants, stupid
I WON my first prize for gardening when I was nine years old at prep school. My grandmother was delighted-it was she who had sent me the seeds of godetia, eschscholtzia and Virginia stock that secured my victory.
Pretty as a picture
The proliferation of honey-coloured stone cottages is part of what makes the Cotswolds so beguiling. Here, we pick some of our favourites currently on the market
How golden was my valley
These four magnificent Cotswold properties enjoy splendid views of hill and dale
The fire within
An occasionally deadly dinner-party addition, this perennial plant would become the first condiment produced by Heinz
Sweet chamomile, good times never seemed so good
Its dainty white flowers add sunshine to the garden and countryside; it will withstand drought and create a sweet-scented lawn that never needs mowing. What's not to love about chamomile
All I need is the air that I breathe
As the 250th anniversary of 'a new pure air' approaches, Cathryn Spence reflects on the 'furious free-thinker' and polymath who discovered oxygen
My art is in the garden
Monet and Turner supplied the colours, Canaletto the structure and Klimt the patterns for the Boodles National Gallery garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.